I am Ramakrishna, fondly called as Chinnari at home.  My friends know me as Rama.  I hail from a village near Tenali in Andhra Pradesh.  Andhra Pradesh lent me my roots and my mother tongue but my life has been shaped in Tamil Nadu as I was born and brought up at Madras or Chennai as it is called now.  It has always been a pleasure that all through my life, my birthday has been celebrated with much pomp and flare and I have been respected on par with my teachers on my Birthday (Just Kidding ;) ) - the only reason being that, I was born on Sept 5th, which is celebrated as Teacher's day all over India. (All this to just mention my B'day).  I got my Bachelor of Engineering Degree from Shanmugha College of Engineering, Thanjavur, TamilNadu, INDIA.  I then did my Masters at the University of Florida, Gainesville.  Right now I am working with Cypress Semiconductors in Bangalore, INDIA.  I joined the company on the 5th of April 2004 as a Design Engineer.

This web page wouldn't be enough for me to describe about my wonderful family and their individual traits. Yet I would like to mention in brief about my parents and my brother, but for whom I would not be what I am today.

I belong to a typical Indian middle class family. My father, late Shri V.V. Koteswara Rao, did his M.Sc in Food Technology and settled in a government job which was a great achievement during his time and worked his way to the top. He retired as the Deputy Director of the Food processing Ministry of India. He held the post for almost 15 years and had turned down repeated offers of promotion just because he felt Madras was the center of education in India and so my brother and myself would be better off here than in Delhi.  He was a very hardworking and determined individual. Rain or shine he would never miss a day of office.  He used to go to work even when he was sick and a couple of years before he retired, would you believe if I said he walked 15 km to work one day when there was a city wide strike in Madras.  None of the guys in his office showed up that day.  His favorite past time and the only thing I disliked about him was that he smoked.  He died of Lung cancer on Jan 10th 2001.  I feel very lucky to be his son.  It is just that someday in my life I could do justice to what my father expected of me.

My mother, Mrs. Krishnavathi Venigalla, is the best of all moms on earth. Words cannot describe about the poignancy and wisdom that my mother portrays.  She did her SSLC and immediately decided to join my father in wedlock to give shape to our wonderful family.  I would consider myself very lucky if I could even return her 1 percentage of the affection and love she has showered upon me and the sacrifices she has done for me.  She is a woman with a great spirit and energy.

My elder brother, Rajasekhar Venigalla, is a man of excellent intellect and is very hardworking. He is just like our dad. The fact that he is a Doctorate in Chemical Engineering and is working as a researcher at IBM, East Fishkill, NY stands testimony to this tremendous potential.  He has always been an enormous source of inspiration for me and continues to guide me.

It would be a great sin on my part if I forget to mention my granny.  How can I not talk about the one person who just by beginning to sing would single handedly wake me up when the rest of the family had failed.  Someday I wish I cud do the same to her. The only problem is that she beats me to it every single time. The height of annoyance was one when I braided her hair.  She let me do it only because she thought I would go away after that.  She was in a for a big big surprise!!!!!!!!